


Lunatic

by deannbean



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, written for BlindSassyExchange2012
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-08
Updated: 2012-09-08
Packaged: 2017-11-13 20:17:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/507332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deannbean/pseuds/deannbean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: When Cas starts falling, he starts sleeping. Unfortunately, he’s a sleepwalker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lunatic

Sam can feel that something is up with Cas. He knows it's not easy for the angel - to lose his power, his family - that would broke anyone. Sam understands and tries to support Cas - as well as he can, with awkward words and good deeds.  
But now that's not it: something is not right. Castiel is falling, and something went wrong. As long as this word can be used at all in the context of a fallen angel, but in Winchester's life any conception was very relative.  
A few weeks ago Castiel started to sleep. At first he would just shut down for a second, without even closing his eyes; then he slept everywhere, at any time. There was a period when Cas refused to sleep, driving himself exhausted and fainting. With time, sleep has become more regular. As strange as it is, Cas turned out to be a night person - he stays awake til long past midnight and wakes up at noon.  
Dean is rumbling about the whole thing - deep inside he's scared shitless with all the stuff hapenning and angry at his helplessness - but it's him who suggests to take another room for Cas at motels, to keep an eye on the angel. Castiel, who's surprisingly passive in the situation, agrees.  
It's in one of those nights at a motel when Sam notices something weird. He wakes up at the middle of the night, not knowing why. Clock on the nightstand says it's 4:22 am. The huner tries to understand what exactly has woken him up - he looks around, listens, even smells aroun t- nothing. As he thinks that he might have imagined something and is about to go back to sleep, Sam suddenly hears some sort of a rustle from the next room, then a thud. It's followed by the sound of water flowing from the tab. After a minute Sam decides to go check if everything is alright, but the moment he plants his bare feet to the floor, the noise stops. After considering it for a second, the hunter decides that it's just Cas wanted to wash (Winchester has explained to him the importance of washing and taught how to use a bathroom. Perhaps, the angel has taken it all too seriously). Thinking that probably Cas just wanted to drink and making a mental note to tell him not to drink water from the tap, Sam goes back to sleep.  
When Cas wakes up in the morning Dean has already left, and Sam is just about to visit a victim of another weird mistirious robbery, so the talk is a bit crumpled. The angel says that he doesn't remember waking up at the night, but agrees that to drink a dirty water is quite unreasonable.and promises not to do that. He looks somehow exhausted. Perhaps, Sam would notice that and ask what is happening, if he wasn't in such a hurry right now. So he wents out of the door, leaving Cas to breakfast alone.  
Such strange sounds at night continue again and again, and everytime Sam awakes. Sometimes it's water flowing again, or the sound of the floor creaking under the steps, even radio (Winchester can swear it's one of the Lady GaGa songs). But apparently he's too into the "Cas is human now" idea, forgetting that it's not characteristical for him to take a midnight snack yet. Anyhow, Sam only asks Cas if he slept well, not taking the topic to heart.But most likely he just has too much urgent life-and-death things going on to actually concentrate on that case.  
-  
It seems the weird nightlife of the next room does bother the hunter just enough to decide to check on things when he's got a night off. The brothers have just finished the hunt for a ghost, a very unfriendly one, and Dean suggested to stay in the town for one more night, calling it "a holiday". He's drinking somwhere in a shitty bar now, and Sam and Cas are spending this night at a motel.  
Castiel turns down the suggestion to sleep in one room tonught, mumbling something about the possible discomfort of this situation. Sam doesn't tell him the real reason for the offer: the angel is not taking anything related to his new human role very well. That's why the hunter lets Cas go to his room, intending to sacrifise his sleep for the sake of listening tothe sounds coming from the other side of the wall.  
It is somewhere near 3 am, and Sam has alredy sharpened all the knifes around, cleaned his boots and did the crossword in the local newspaper. He finishes his fourth cup of coffee, as he mentally lists all the amendments to the United States Constitution and is on the eights ("Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.") when something draws his attention. Straightening on his stool, Sam tries to understand if he heard a cricket's chirr or it's something at Cas's place. After a few seconds the noise is there againg, folowed by quiet steps.  
Sam takes one of the just-sharpened knofes and moves to the corridor. After a moment of hesitation, he pushes the door to the next room and steps inside.  
The first thing for Sam to see is that Castiel's nowhere around his bed. Which means that it's probably the angel making the noises rather than some misterious night visitors, the existence of whom Sam has started to suspect, so the hunter relaxes a bit. He loosens his grip on the knife and tries to locate the angel. For some reason, Sam doesn't want to call Cas out loud.  
am's agitation begins to grow again when he quick-checks the place and there's no sign of Cas anywhere. After checking in a cupboard, under the table and behind the bed, Sam remembers about the bathroom. He smiles a little at his own forgetfulness, but the lack of light from under the bathroom's door bothers the hunter.  
Sam's afraid that the door is locked from the inside, but as he pulls the door handle he can tell it's a bit ajar. Sam adjusts the knife in his hand, steps inside and lits the light.  
The sight is a bit surprising, though Sam expected it to be much worse. Cas - alive,unharmed and alone, stands in a bathtub, completely dressed, and covers his face with contents of some bottle. Sam can't see the angel's face, but something about his posture seems alarming, and the whole situation itself is not what you call "ordinary". But what does "ordinary" mean to a hunter, really?  
\- Cas? What are you doing? Can I help you? - The angel doesn't pay any slightest attention to the question and continues to spread the odd goo all over his face and hair.  
Sam starts to think he may know what's going on, so he puts the knife away and reaches his hand to Castiel's shoulder, gingerly turning the angel to face him.  
Sam is not surprised to see the unfocused gaze and the lack of any expression on Castiel's face. He softly takes the bottle out of the angel's hands and puts it to a shelf.  
Sam knows very little about sleepwalking (and he prays for it to be the case), so after a few unsuccessful attempts to guide Cas out of the bathtub without waking him up Winchester decides that it will be easier to deal with this erm... situation right there.  
Very carefully, trying not to squeeze Cas's shoulders too hard, Sam puts him in the bathtub; light touches calm the angel down, so he closes his eyes and goes back to normal sleep.  
Sam decides to stay and make sure nothing else happens. He isn't comletely sure about his sleepwalking theory, and under other circumstances he would check the room for any bizzare symbols or hex bags, but now he can't bring himself to leave Cas. A touch of panick waves through the hunter: he has a feeling that something really bad is up with Cas and he can do nothing to prevent it.  
Twenty minutes passes, and these unpleasant thoughts are still in Sam's mind. During this time he has put all the bottles on the shelf into a straight row in numerous different combinations and to clean up the mirrow on the wall. The hunter would throw a glance at Cas, who's snoring in the bathtub, every now and then while doing it, and everytime he would get the scratching sensation in his chest, like a little worm eating him from the inside.  
Tired of this, Sam sits at the cool piles of the floor, risking to catch a cold, and tries to deal with the muddle in his head; he thinks not only about this night, but about everything having something to do with Castiel's lost of power.  
Not a minute passes, as Sam notices a movement in the bathtub. He jumps to his feet and looms over the angel, who opens his eyes, making Winchester to take a few hasty steps back.  
\- Cas?.. - the question sounds a bit hesitant, because Sam isn't sure what to expect this time.  
\- Why am I in a bathroom? And why do I smell like the herbs of Provance?  
\- Ah, um, yeah, about that... I probably want to wash your face. Jesus, Cas, what are you doing?! I taught you! -Sam turns off the boiling hot water which Cas turned on while still sitting in the bath. - You alright, dude? Here, a towel. Lets get out of here, we need to talk.  
-  
Five minutes later the two of them sit in Sam's room: he's nervously clenching his laptop, Cas is tensed on the stool. There's two bottles of cold beer on the table between them.  
\- So... Do you know what happened? Remember going to the bathroom?  
\- So I went there myself, then? Hm... Sorry, Sam, I don't remember anything.  
Cas looks awfully upset and exhausted. Sam's heart tightened at the sight. But only he opens his mouth to tell something reassuring, Castiel speaks again:  
\- What is happening with me? Ever since I started to sleep everything has become worse. I... I wake up not where I fell asleep before, there's these horrible bruises all over my body, which I'm not able to heal anymore, I break things... I'm tired, Sam, - Cas looks at his hands during the confession. Raising his head to look at Sam, what the angel sees in his eyes is pain and... not pity, but sympathy. It makes him feel uneasy.  
\- Sorry, Sam. I shouldn't have thrown it all at you, I  
\- Cas, stop. Listen to me, please: it's not easy for you to deal with everything around you right now. I was an ass, refusing to see the obvious, but now please let me help you and explain it all to you, - Sam waits for a nod, then opens his laptop. - You see, Cas, I think that sleepwalking explains everything going on with you. You know what it is, right?  
\- Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage of low consciousness and perform activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness.  
\- Did you just word-for-word quote the Wikipedia article? - In response to Sam's intrigued look Cas just shrugs. - Okay, well, see? It happens, it's normal.  
\- Not for adults.  
\- But you're not an adult, Cas. I mean, from some point of view you're just a few weeks old. The whole world is new to you, it's a stress. Maybe it's just your mind's reaction.  
\- You really think so? - Hope in the angel's voice puts a warm smile on Sam's face.  
\- Absolutely! Hold on a second, I'll try to find something on the Internet. You have a drink.  
A couple of minutes they sit in silence: Sam types something, looking on the screen with conserned frown, and Cas drinks his beer. The angel likes beer, especially now, when he can experience it's effect without impoverishing a small pub. He's distracted from a long thoughtful seep by a light cough.  
\- Sorry. Did you find something?  
\- In fact, yes, I think I did. Listen... yep, here it is: "Sleepwalking in adults may be caused by a stress, often related to a sudden change in person's lifestyle or theirs surroundings. In that case sleepwalking is a temporary symptom. If sleep is not normalized within two or three weeks, it is recommended to visit a specialist ..." - Sam makes an awkward pause here. - And then there's more: "... A partial return to a person's comfort zone is often recommended: some objects for their past may comfort a sleepwalker." Here, it's simple!  
\- I have nothing, - the words are barely audible, like a whisper.  
\- What?  
\- I have nothing, - the hunter can't recognise this dull, lifeless voice, so different from the voice of Cas he's used to hear. - No power, no family, no home. Nothing. There's only my vessel left from my old life, but it's only a shell. There's just ... me, inside.  
These words, the blank stare and the angel's voice - it all scares the hell out Sam. He suddenly feels nauseous, his entire body trembling a little. It's too much like a panic attack.  
\- There must be something, anything, - In the corner of his mind Sam is surprised himself how many plea is in his voice. The hunter knows that there's so much more depending on the answer than just a helthy sleep. He can see Castiel faiding away, and he is terrified.  
It seems like eternity before Cas replies - slowly and unsure:  
\- Yes. You, - it is a shock for both of them. But the angel's expression changes, and he continues in clear and steady voice. - You and Dean - that's what I've got.  
Sam can't restrain himself anymore. Everything he was through during the night results into one gusty hug. There's a thud of chairs hitting the floor, beer pours all over the table, but the hunter just doesn't care. Because he finally knows what he has to do.

**Author's Note:**

> My first work for a prompt, it was quite weird but I enjoyd writing this. The end part was hell though. Anyway, thanks for reading!


End file.
